The darkness pressed in around me. It was cold and tingled my skin. The darkness expanded outward. A figure stood at a distance. So far, it was only vaguely human-shaped. I squinted, but there was no light. I was standing in empty dreamspace, just like I had been when Isabell had called on me. Except this wasn't Isabell, it couldn't be. It didn't feel like her.

The figure floated closer. Slowly the edges of her defined into the small shape of Mila. She stopped about ten feet away from ...